Gary Lorne Abrecht · 1992 Honoree

Chief Gary Abrecht says of himself, “I am not what you would call a typical cop.” Raised in Switzerland, fluent in French, Yale educated and a former Latin teacher, he hardly fits the stereotype of a law enforcement officer.

Gary Abrecht was born in Berkeley, California while his parents attended the University there. When Gary was five, his dad, an ordained Northern Baptist minister, accepted a position with the World Council of Churches and moved the family to Geneva, Switzerland. Gary's earliest memories of the U.S. came from the Dick & Jane books his mother provided outside of his French schooling, and what he heard over Armed Forces Radio.

To be sure, his upbringing was different than his contemporaries in the States. There was no T.V., no department stores, no supermarkets, and police “rode bicycles and directed traffic.” Gary was an active Boy Scout and, as a teenager, he represented Switzerland at the 50th Anniversary Boy Scout Jamboree in Colorado Springs. He attended College de Geneve, a boys high school founded by John Calvinin 1559.

Gary returned to the U.S. for good when he entered Yale University in 1963 with an eye toward a career in foreign service. Majoring in economics and labor relations, he became quite active in civil rights and the Student Christian Movement, through which he met his wife Mary Ellen. He came to Washington after graduation to become a teacher in the D.C. Public School System.

The school board looked at his qualifications and sent him to teach Latin on a rotating schedule at six different schools in Anacostia. Gary says, “I didn’t really know what to expect, they just threw me in the soup.” He often quips that he was assaulted more as a teacher than he has been since following Mary Ellen’s lead to become a police officer in1969.

As he rose quickly through the ranks of the Metropolitan Police Department, Chief Abrecht’s duties have included: CAPTAIN/1d-1 (Capitol Hill substation)(1978); INSPECTOR/ Citywide Night Supervisor (1984); Director of Equal Employment Opportunity (1984); Director, Planning and Development Division (1985); and DEPUTY CHIEF/ Commanding Officer, First District (1988). To recount his accomplishments while on the force would take many pages.

On May 1st, 1992, Gary Abrecht was sworn in as Chief of the U.S. Capitol Police.

Chief Abrecht has been active in the Capitol Hill community for the last twenty years, professionally and as a volunteer. He is an active member of Christ Church Washington Parish, past President of the Capitol Hill Cluster Schools PTA, and has worked closely with the CHAMPS organization.

More important than all his commendations and career accomplishments, Gary Abrecht is the kind of leader with disciplines to which we should all aspire. He is honest, educated, hard working, polite, self-effacing, wholesome, compassionate and family oriented. If he’s not what we might ordinarily expect of a career police officer, maybe our expectations aren’t high enough.